October 2013

04/09/2013

IBM i 25: Venus and Mars Collide

Today’s chapter in the IBMi25 story is all about how two
very different platforms – the System/36 and System/38 – came together to make
the AS/400. It turns out that, inside IBM, it was as much about integrating our
people as it was about integrating our technology.

Before the AS/400 launch, I was working on the Midrange
Support Team in the National Support Centre for IBM Canada. In the team were
two very distinct groups of experts - those who worked with System/38 customers
and those who worked with System/36 customers. The S/38 team was made up of people
who focused on technology. They understood the integrated database, integrated
security and single level storage. The S/36 support team was more focused on
business solutions for manufacturing, distribution and construction industries.
The System/36 team also reached out to application vendors, building the portfolio
of business applications, helping them to exploit new opportunities. Note only
was the S/36 from Venus and the S/38 from Mars, the people were also avid Venusians
or Martians.

In bitterly cold early January in Rochester, my entire team
was sent to an education class. After twoweeks, if became apparent that the new
machine, Silver Lake, was going to blend the architecture of the S/38 with the
usability and applications of the S/36.

The S/38 people soon came to value the fact that solutions
were vital to success. The S/36 team quickly came to admire the power of a
virtualized and technology independent architecture. And, so it was that on announcement
day, our team was united as AS/400 experts. Included were people who could
explain hardware, operating system, performance and yes, the multitude of business
applications. Venus and Mars had collided; Venusians and Martians came together
too. Still today, you can ask people in IBM about their heritage and they will
be able to tell you if they came from the S/36 or S/38 heritage. But they all
agree on one point, they are very happy to celebrate twenty-five years of IBM
i.

Comments

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Hi Alison,
I came from the S/34, S/36 and then S/38, AS/400 and now IBM i. Of course I am very happy to celebrate twenty-five years of IBM i. Customers have mainly S/36 converted into S/38 or pure S/38 AS/400 applications. RPGIII was generally converted into RPGIV with the IBM command CVTRPGSRC so customers are able to use new instructions and open new doors. Which is interesting is the value of what customers already have.
If you think about it, now Google Apps is leading the way and Microsoft is following Google with Office 365. Those new applications are fully integrated in proprietary computers behind the Web. For example, with Google Apps, you pay 40 euros (I am French) per year, per user and you get Office+Calendar+email + 25Go. No security problems, no management problems: you connect with a UserProfile+Password and use it, that’s all. You automatically have the last version each time you connect. All the security and management problems belong to the last century.
Very few developers in the world are able to develop multi-tenant multi-users applications data base include. Among the systems available to do that, you have Google Engine and IBM I for persistent business application. One day, someone have to tell us that our RPGIV applications are the best of the best of the 21 century. Like Google, the users just have to connect to get a virtual computer online. For more than 25 years we develop applications online, one version of applications, the last one, is shared by all the users dynamically connected. The value of what we already have is potentially fantastic.
Maybe, Alison, IBM needs to blend more: the presentation layer too in order to continue the AS/400 saga for the next 25 years to come for persistent business applications on the Cloud. Thanks you again for this incredible and unexpected celebration.

If you are under 40 years old, you probably have no idea what S/36 and S/38 are. If you are under 30 years old, you probably have no idea what AS/400 is. With so many name changes since AS/400 was renamed, few people know what to call it now. A customer executive asked IBM at a customer event last year: there are iPod, iPad, iPhone, are you selling iPower?

I am still dreaming of a day that would work on AS/400 again. I had so much fun working on that system. So robust and durable. I love those IBM ads trying to prove that the AS/400 or iSeries can take the "licking" and keep on ticking! I wish PC would last as long as the AS/400 did.

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